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meyersnole

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Everything posted by meyersnole

  1. Hi Matt, The Hybrid and the unique electric components of the PHEV powertrain are covered by the standard warranty. 8 year/ 100,000 miles with lots of caveats. More information here: Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Unique Component Coverage And you should have this in your manuals (here it is in PDF) 2020 Ford Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Warranty Guide
  2. Almost completely agree. The other thing that Tesla has is insane performance/$ value. I know plenty of people that bought them because of the driving experience with no regard about the other benefits of an electric powertrain.
  3. I think the latest from Tesla is that the V3 of the supercharger should be in the 200-250 kWh range and give an 80% charge in around 15-20 minutes. Tesla's commitment to their supercharger infrastructure is a reason why I always laugh when reporters talk about a Tesla killer from some major brand. Yes, the car might be superior in some ways but is the entire experience enough to get people to ignore Tesla's products?
  4. Looks like a new demo period starts today and goes through Sept 10. Includes the navigation features as well this time. https://www.siriusxm.com/
  5. My 2013 Ford Fusion Energi was also my first Ford (as well as my first American brand) car. Likely to be my last as well as I am not an SUV type individual. On its face this seems like a very odd move for Ford to make. Researching sales, it seems that Fusion sales have trailed off some but they sold over 200K copies last year. I think you would compare the Fusion to the Chevy Malibu which sold just under 186K copies. Isn't it more likely for the Fusion shopper to just go buy the Chevy rather than cross shop an SUV like an Escape? Also don't see the Fusion buyer cross shopping the Mustang... which seems to sell only 82K copies in 2017 (but I suppose they need a car to compete in NASCAR and this gives them the best option to compete?). Still like my Fusion and plan to keep driving it. Would not have likely replaced it with another Fusion because Ford has not improved it enough to be competitive with other PHEV cars on the market, IMO. I am guessing this means that the long range EV vehicle is going to be an SUV, and again not really interested.
  6. I hosted my photos from this site, and they are still showing. The ones that have issues are hosted from another site.
  7. Not going to register a vote because I too am still happy with my 2013 and plan to keep driving it for quite some time. If I were to go looking today I would be disappointed that the car is not significantly different, while more refined, than the one I purchased way back in early 2013. I would be much more interested in a BEV than I was when I purchased this car both understanding how much range I really need and the availability of much bigger battery BEVs. Given I did not put a deposit down on a model 3 that would be an unrealistic choice, but I would consider a used model S. I also like the functionality/range of the Bolt and it gets great reviews. The new Volt looks better than the first gen but I have not sat in one yet, I was simply uncomfortable in the original one and it had horrible sight lines. Maybe they fixed those complaints? I have had 2 BMWs in the past and am a bit soured on the brand, not sure the i3 would change that and they are in a major recall right now anyway. Other cars that would be on my investigate list would be the VW eGolf and Chrysler Pacifica PHEV (Think I want a travel car next and while I don't like the look of the car it reviews well) or if it actually ever really gets here the Mitsubishi Outlander.
  8. And then you have Elon Musk that is building multiple gigafactories to meet what he thinks is current demand with current technology (not that Tesla is standing still or anything -- he has hinted they are also very close to a breakthrough). But you have an example of a company all in on electric vehicles and another that wants to prove they can. EV sales would spike hard if Tesla had the production capacity of a company like Toyota... but it does not. Will be interesting to see what happens when the model 3 starts shipping in real numbers and becomes available to buy (no year wait times).. will it sell?
  9. I thought this was a decent read... As 2018 Nissan Leaf arrives, data on US electric-car market offers reality check http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1112486_as-2018-nissan-leaf-arrives-data-on-us-electric-car-market-offers-reality-check What is it going to take to push the electric car forward in adoption? Currently less than 1% of overall sales if you just look at BEV, only 3.5 if you include hybrids and PHEV (thought it was higher than that.. but this article is not sourced.). I know a lot of people say price, but it already seems to be competitive with ICE vehicles. Sure price will drive sales, but I don't think that is really the answer. Battery technology? This could be a bigger deal. People will fixate on that 1%-5% use case where even if you have 250 mile range but needed to do 300-400 in a day? How long would the charge take? How available is it? (Infrastructure - probably also a big deal). How bad is the battery degradation and how do you deal with it? Maybe it is economics and a 200 mile battery costs less than $5k to replace? Will it take a mandate (zero emissions) to get there? Personally I think battery technology like solid state batteries or something that allows quick charging plus education and the car makers' desire to sell these cars all have to come together for it to really take off. Here is hoping that Toyota stays on track for its 2020 release of that technology. Ford seems to have lost interest... have not heard anything about the Model E in the last year and the Fusion seems stagnant in technology... no real electrification drive train changes since the model introduction. There are few sites guessing that Ford is still moving forward with a Prius competitor to be released in 2019... but there is no hype ahead of launch like there was from GM about the Bolt or Tesla for their model 3. My guess is that they are going to play it pretty conservatively and see where the market goes... play catch up if they need to.
  10. Missed this post earlier, to add to Murphy's post... I too very much like this car. Along with Murphy my biggest complaint about this car is the incredible depreciation (especially since I was an early adopter and purchased before the 5K price reduction!). Unlike Murphy, I drive this car a little more and the ODO has rolled over 50,000 and I have over changed the oil more out of convenience (I sometimes let the dealer do it when I am there for the inspection or one of the many recalls). Speaking of recalls, can't say I am happy that there have been so many... but I am happy that to date Ford has stood behind this car. Love driving around town in EV only mode and probably will not purchase a car with out adaptive cruise ever again! The collision warning system saved my car one time when a kid on the phone turned right in front of me, still can't believe I didn't hit them. I like big cars and this one just felt more comfortable than the Volt, which I would have bought other than the its awkward interior. It is football season and I will be making many trips up and down 95 on the East coast and this car is very comfortable to drive and even driving in the 70's I get 40-42mpg, which I think is outstanding. Add in most of my local driving is EV only and my lifetime MPGe is over 52 and I am a happy camper. I have no concerns with reliability, but I also purchased a 7 year ESP but at 100,000 miles. Usually I try and sell with a little warranty left, but I may keep this car longer if it keeps meeting my needs. Just one control unit failure or the like will be worth it... basically I felt there were so many computers on this car that it was risky not to purchase it. Especially since I ticked all the boxes and bought a loaded example, sensors and computers everywhere.
  11. The charger that came with your car will work with your standard 120v socket in your garage. Just make sure that you do not overload that circuit with multiple things plugged into that plug, or other plugs that are on the same breaker while you are charging your car. If you want to charge your car faster, then you will most likely have to have an electrician come out and install a 240V line in your garage. If you are willing to undergo that expense then many on here would point you to Clipper Creek ( https://www.clippercreek.com/ )as a good value charger. The car wont be able to take advantage of anything over a 16A charger but if you are going to go through the expense of putting a level 2 charger in then your next car might be able to utilize a bigger charger. Browse through this section of the forum as there is a lot of information to be found. Good luck!
  12. I am partial to Covercraft sun screens. Again, you will pay around $50 but it is a quality sunscreen that will fill your entire window as it is built for your vehicle. https://www.covercraft.com/us/en/sunscreens You can order them from Auto Anything where there are frequently coupons for 10-20% off if you dont mind signing up for their mailing list. http://www.autoanything.com/ Weather Tech makes quality mats so I would assume that would be a good option as well.... a quality sunshade can make huge difference in the amount of heat allowed in the car especially when paired with quality tint job.
  13. I replaced my battery at AutoZone with this battery. http://www.autozone.com/ignition-tune-up-and-routine-maintenance/battery/duralast-battery/755656_695251_0 Not because I thought this battery was better than the OEM part, but because mine failed and the parts store was much closer to me. This was a correct fit for the car, but it was still problematic to get into the car. Another advantage of the parts store is that they did not charge me to install the battery. Just FYI, there is a battery management system on the car and the car has to rest (left undisturbed) for 8 hours with the new battery to marry itself to the new battery -- unless you have an OBII tool to go in and perform a reset (something that Ford would do for you, but AutoZone wont). One night in the garage and the system will reset itself, not that you would know one way or the other with out the tool.
  14. My previous car was an Acura TL, the car before that was a BMW 5 series... both of those cars munched on tires (my driving probably had a little to do with it :) ). I try to keep the tires rotated every 5-8 thousand miles... that seems to keep the wear down.
  15. Almost at 50,000 miles and too near the wear lines so I decided to go ahead and put a new pair of tires on the car. I probably could have gotten another thousand or so miles out the Energy Saver A/S but I can really tell that the car does not track as well as it once did and it is also a bit more noisy than it was. I went back and forth on whether to "upgrade" the tire to the Premier A/S for better wet performance as it can get pretty wet in the South especially on my trips to Florida but I just kept coming back to the Energy Saver being a really solid tire, the best tire I can remember purchasing with a car. Most other cars I have replaced the tire sooner due to performance or noise... but these tires have been very nice. So I am the happy owner of 4 new Energy Saver A/S tires and the car is back to driving how I remember it driving. What a difference new tires make! :)
  16. As mentioned above... you can get a clipper creek model for half that money. https://store.clippercreek.com/level1 Or if you wanted to upgrade to level 2, https://store.clippercreek.com/level2, it would be about the same money but you would probably have to add additional wiring to your garage to accommodate the charger.
  17. As mentioned by muzicman61, I use Fuelly. (See below).
  18. Any answer on this would simply be a guess, as a Ford exec will not be sharing their strategy on a message board. But I could share my guess. PHEVs and BEVs are not high profit transactions, F150s and SUVs are... guess where Ford is going to put its advertising. Some brands (GM, Nissan, Toyota, etc) are putting real effort to compete in this space as they see an alternative drive platform as inevitable. Manufactures such as Ford, BMW, VW (Audi & Porsche included), Hyundai, Fiat, Daimler AG (Mercedes, Smart), and others are also reacting to this inevitable switch with a more cautious approach. Given the recent price trend in gasoline/oil... maybe that is the better approach. Add in the above stated reasons of salespersons unwilling to learn the product, disincentives for dealerships to promote these vehicles (loss of oil change/brake maintenance) and you can understand where we are. If Tesla was not so disruptive you would have to believe that GM, Nissan, and Toyota would not be so invested. My opinion anyway.
  19. I would guess that a lease is a car that was sold to the leasing company, so it would be counted. But that is just a guess on my part.
  20. Not exactly what you asked, but here are how many EV cars were sold by model per month: http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ 4,350 Fusion Energis sold through May in 2017.
  21. I bought a replacement battery at Autozone as the dealership that I like to use is pretty far away and I waited until the battery failed. It was a new part for them. Posted about it here: http://www.fordfusionenergiforum.com/topic/4760-12-volt-battery-died/?p=28673
  22. There are many people on this site that are very happy with Clipper Creek https://store.clippercreek.com/hcs-40pr-nema-6-50 If you are asking about an adapter for the charger that came with the car, that one is not 240v but standard 120v 15amp circuit. So that would be the wrong outlet to plug into. More on Level 1 (120v charging) and Level 2 (240v charging) https://www.clippercreek.com/level-1-level-2-charging-stations/
  23. Not too technical and nice overview.... Panasonic, Tesla’s Battery Partner, May Have Upcoming EV Battery Breakthroughs http://insideevs.com/panasonic-teslas-battery-partner-upcoming-ev-battery-breakthroughs/
  24. Anytime you get a car from the secondary market you run the risk that the vehicle has sat idle for some time. Even new, if the dealership does not turn over the inventory quickly you could run into a battery that has deep cycled a few times and significantly shortened its life. Fortunately the battery is not very expensive and keeping in mind the systems short comings (see murphy's excellent explanation above) you can avert troubles in the future. If you are worried about being stranded there are two other suggestions that could be followed to mitigate problems. 1) Tie a string to the release cable in the trunk and run it through your seat to the backseat. The trunk will not open with out power. 2) Carry a portable jump pack -- the car does not need a lot of juice to start. Just enough to wake the systems up. I just do the first one, as with my driving habits the original battery lasted me just over 4 years... not bad for an oem. If there was a decent AGM version battery designed for this car I would have bought it, but if I get 4 more years out of this battery I will be happy. Personally I am not interested in buying another battery and carrying it around with me just in case. I am usually in high traffic areas and not worried about being stranded. I read in another thread that they had their battery replaced at the dealer and the new battery had more than 390 CCAs, that would have been nice... but my dealer was too far away for a quick run by and so I just went to the auto parts store. Need to drop back by to see about the BMS reset. (on my list of things to do, but not high as the car is working great) Edit: BMS Reset reset not necessary. The car will do it once it sits 8 hours (overnight?).
  25. For trucking to work with this type of propulsion I would think that the charging infrastructure must be built into sections of the interstates. Of course the economics on this scale with the amount of fuel that is burned could possibly overcome the price of the batteries, which would be quite substantial to hit the range targets. Aerodynamics are also going to play a huge role for this to work, I wonder if part of the "next level thinking" is related to auto pilot and trucks that follow in close proximity. You could then have the vehicles move like bicycles do in a peloton coordinated through some type of mesh networking. Cool stuff.
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